IE 286 
.L2A 
1825 
IcopV ^ 




MK. WILLARD'S ORATION. 




Class 

Book 



/.•^V 



i?zr 



AN 



ORATION 



DELIVERED AT LANCASTER, MASS. 



IJf CELEBRATION OF 



AMERICAN INDEPENDENCS, 



JULY, 1825. 



BY JOSEPH WILLARD, H \<-iSv5" 






BOSTON, .r 
CUMMINGS, BILLIARD, Sc COMPANY— WASHINGTON-STREET. 



PRINTED BY HILLIARD AND METCAI.F. 

1823. J 



To Joseph WillARD Esq. Lancaster, July 5, 1825. 

Sir, 

The Committee of Arrangements, in behalf of their fellow citizens who 

celebrated the anniversary of our national independence at Lancaster, return you 

thanks for your excellent oration, and request a copy of the same for the press. 

For the Committee. 

HORATIO CARTER. 



To Mr. Horatio Carter. Lancaster, July 5, 1825. 

Sir, 

In compliance with the request of the Committee of Arrangements, I sub- 
mit to their disposal and indulgence the following oration, which, by reason of indis- 
position and necessary avocations, I was obliged to delay writing till the last few 
days. Witli assurances of esteem, 

I am, &c. 

J. WILLARD. 



'-]. ^.^- 



V^*^ 



,,^ 



ORATION. 



We have assembled to commemorate an event 
distinguished in our political annals for the glorious 
recollections of the past that gather around it ; dis- 
tinguished also for the bright hopes with which it 
gilds the future ; an event without a parallel in any 
age, if we consider the consequences that have flowed, 
and still continue to flow from it. We look on every 
side, and find ourselves in the midst of a vast and 
populous community. Our existence as a nation is 
no longer a problem ; a half century of self-govern- 
ment has proved that the speculations of our fathers 
were moulded in wisdom, and what was deemed by 
all an experiment, and by many a very rash one, has 
exceeded the expectations of friends, and destroyed 
the doubts and fears of the timid. 

Many were the predictions that our national exist- 
ence would be short. Those who loved their country, 
and were ready to make sacrifices in her behalf, 
looked foward to a prospect that to them seemed 
gloomy, — to a prospect that shadowed out, at no 
remote period, decay and dissolution. 

They thought they saw a frame of government, 
whose elements were untempercd, and which, like 



the image beheld by the king of Babylon in his 
vision, would crumble at the first shock. But, if I 
may use the expression, no nation ever perished in 
infancy ; the history of the world shows none. By 
the order of nature and the course of events, nations 
have their period of youth and mature existence. 
Factions may arise and shake them to the very 
centre ; war, with its horrors, may visit them ; the 
fairest and brightest may be cut off; but the spirit 
they possess is not quickly lost : they must pass 
through many vicissitudes ; they must see many dark 
hours, and many perhaps of glory ; many of weakness 
and strength, before they can perish politically from 
the earth. 

There is nothing in our situation alarming, but 
every thing to nourish the highest hopes. We smile 
at the predictions that once were not entirely without 
the sanction of public opinion. We were told that 
our civil institutions of government were not fitted 
for a thickly settled and extensive territory. Your 
government may last, perhaps, whilst the Alleghanies 
arc a barrier to your people against the hostile tribes 
of the west ; but should you pass the mountains, and 
extend your settlements to the Wabash, and roll 
your population along with the waters of the Ohio, 
the planet that has risen so rapidly, and looked por- 
tentous to the world, and bid fair to be lord of the 
ascendant, will sink in endless night. 



Your complicated machinery of sovereign states 
and a federate government will soon crumble ; per- 
petual conflicts will spring up from your diverse and 
jarring interests. But the Wabash and the Ohio now 
roll through a country abounding in population, and 
water the soil that is cultivated by civilized man. 
Still westward and westward sets the current of 
emigration. States not forty years old feel crowded ; 
at this moment they are sending forth adventurers, 
their hardy sons, to find room for expansion. The 
Mississippi is but a resting place on this wide spread- 
ing highway ; and towns have sprung up on the dis- 
tant banks of the Missouri, enjoying the conveniences 
and many of the luxuries of what is called the old 
world of America. 

Soon the Stony Mountains, and the intermediate 
sandy wastes of the Platte and the Yellow Stone, 
will be passed, and this generation may behold a 
people with our institutions, speaking our language, 
with our habits and feelings, covering the banks of 
the Columbia, and the shores of the Pacific. 

This is no fanciful speculation ; what has already 
been accomplished may lay claim to the miraculous, 
if what remains to be done be considered of exceed- 
ing difficulty. Other nations have risen to power by 
slow progression, and through various casualties ; but 
here the word seems scarcely to have been spoken, 
and an empire has sprung into existence, like " Pallas 
armed and undefiled." A little one has swollen to 



twelve millions, increasing in knowledge, the arts, 
wealth, and all that enters into the substance of na- 
tional power ; or serves for its embellishment. No 
sea is there that is not full of our commerce and fish- 
eries ; no port that has not been visited by our citizens ; 
whilst in the mean time our civil institutions have 
been gaining strength, as the sphere of their opera«i. 
tions has extended on every side, and are before the 
world in expressive silence, a beacon and a blessing 
to the nations that are toiling after freedom. 

I have no relish for a weak national vanity, that 
w'ould indulge itself in an over-estimate of what is 
valuable at home, and look with contempt upon the 
rest of the world. But I thank God, that descrip- 
tions and speculations, however much they may seem 
to borrow from the imagination, must run wild in 
luxuriance to exceed the naked, sober truth. We 
are but of yesterday, " driven rather than sent to 
these shores," and already stand conspicuous amongst 
the powers of the earth. Old rules here lose their 
force ; in a few years we do the work of ages, and 
gain the point where history tells us other nations 
arrive after centuries of exertion. Whilst yet in the 
cradle, like the infant Hercules, we strangled the ser- 
pents that were sent for our destruction. 

Our situation and advantages are subjects of grati- 
tude, not of pride and conceit. We are accused of 
vain exultations on account of our rapid growth. 



We have, perhaps, been fond of indulging in a very 
complacent state of feeling and remark in speak- 
ing of our privileges, and of our prospects of increas- 
ing greatness. We have considered the future as 
present, and have acted upon prospective results, as 
if the day of accomplishment had arrived. For all 
this, however, we are not without excuse- The ac- 
tual increase is so great, the resources of the country 
are developing so rapidly, every thing that constitutes 
a powerful nation is hastening on so singularly, that 
while we are speaking of future advancement, the 
future becomes present with the completion of all that 
we had expected. Time has as it were changed his 
mode of computation ; days stand for months, and a 
few years answer all the purposes of an age. We 
cannot hasten, we cannot impede the progress, it 
naturally follows from the peculiarly happy station 
we hold ; the result of what our fathers did for us. 

Contented at home and exerting ourselves for our 
beloved country like good citizens, we should disre- 
gard the calumnies that have been cast upon us from 
abroad. They have been poured forth, it is true, 
with an unsparing hand ; we have been ridiculed for 
our pretensions ; have been made the subjects of 
innumerable falsehoods ; our institutions and the na- 
ture of our government have been grossly misunder- 
stood ; we have been made the sport of satire in 
lighter moments, and the gravest charges have been 
brought against us in hours of calm reflection. Noth- 



8 - 

iiig has been too gross, no wilful misrepresentation 
too bold, for those who have filled their mouths with 
slander. Sweeping conclusions have been drawn 
from single instances, exceptions taken for rules, and 
individual cases of crime, construed as decisive proof 
of general depravity. But the time of these things is 
fast passing away ; every day we live down many 
calumnies ; respect for ourselves as a people demands 
that the war of retaliation should cease, and forbids 
any other answer or retort, than the example we set ; 
if this is insufficient, we have no other shield, we de- 
serve the worst fate that hostile feeling can wish. 

But true patriotism consists not in resting satisfied 
with what has already been accomplished, neither is 
it discovered by a multitude of words, nor is it blind 
to public faults. It is not a spirit that vapours in 
the bar-room, or gathers inspiration from the cask : 
it is active, hastening the progress of improvement ; 
disinterested, making sacrifices of individual comfort 
for the general good. 

In no single case can it be better shown, than in 
endeavours to promote the diffusion of knowledge. 
Look over our country, and see what vast sums are 
annually raised in the old states, and the reservations 
of land that are made in the new states, for the pur- 
pose of education alone, whose blessings, free to all, 
open to all, are brought to the fireside of the hum- 
blest individual. But even here there is room for 
improvement. I confine the remark to our own 



state. Are we as active in promoting the cause 
of education as our situation, the spirit of the age, 
and circumstances demand ? How stand we in 
this respect compared with our fathers ? Do we not 
far outstrip them in our regard for free schools, and 
the intellectual cultivation of the great body of the 
people ? No ; to our shame be it said, and repeated 
too, we are as far behind them in these things, as we 
are in advance of them in population and wealth. 
They built up schools, to use the language of the 
times, " to the end that learning may not be buried 
in the graves of our forefathers in church and com- 
monwealth." And look for a moment at their situa- 
tion ; in a wilderness, to be subdued by the hard 
hand of toil ; in poverty, surrounded by inveterate 
and treacherous foes ; compelled, and that not unfre- 
quently, to go forth to their daily labours, yea, to the 
worship of their God in the sanctuary, with arms in 
their hands to protect themselves, their wives, and 
their children. These men made better public pro- 
vision for the diffusion of knowledge, according to 
their ability, than is enjoyed at the present day, ex- 
cepting in a few of our largest towns. Massachu- 
setts, a humble, poor, dependent colony in 1647, 
with an existence of but eighteen years, exerted her- 
self more strenuously for the good cause, than Mas- 
sachusetts, independent, powerful, and rich, in 1825. 
Let me not be misunderstood ; I speak solely of 
our free schools. The liberality of individuals is 

B 



10 

ojreat ; they have expended, and will continue to ex- 
pend, untold sums in colleges, academies, and private 
schools ; and the beneficial results continually force 
themselves upon our notice. But the poor man's 
son who aspires to a finished education, is shut out 
from academies and private schools ; he cannot go 
there, and, in the language of inspiration, " buy with- 
out money and without price." He seeks for the 
grammar schools, where genius, though clothed in 
rags, once found encourageuient and instruction ; 
where the streams once flowed, open to every one ; 
but the doors are barred against him, against all, by 
the strong arm of the government. He is compelled 
to sit down in silence, and lament for the sad neces- 
sities that encircle him, or to trust to the charities of 
others, to be stung, it may be, to the very soul with 
the chill feeling of dependency. We would respect 
})ublic authorities, we would reverence public opinion 
when fully, calmly, and fairly expressed. In this 
instance, as in most others, the Legislature followed 
the general voice, instead of directing it. It is we, 
the people, who have blinded our own eyes, by dis- 
regarding the law while it existed, or by loosely en- 
forcing its injunctions ; marring the simple and beau- 
tiful system projected by our ancestors in wisdom, 
and handed down to us with the sanction of almost 
two centuries, with the sanction also of distinguished 
benefits. 

But with all our deficiencies, we have, particularly 



11 

in New England, cherished the interests of common 
learning, beyond other nations. Throughout Chris- 
tendom nineteen twentieths of the population are 
ignorant of the very rudiments of education ; to them 
every book is a sealed book. Even in England, 
we have it on high authority, as late as 1819, 
only one fifteenth out of that great people could read 
and write. But since that time, the same distin- 
guished individual who made the statement we have 
mentioned, has stirred up a mighty spirit in tlie isl- 
and ; he has been the means of sending instruction to 
the doors of thousands, in the manufacturing districts 
especially, amongst beings who possessed but little 
more intelligence than the steam engines and spinning 
jennies that surround them. He has created an 
excitement, that, touched by the wand of knowledge, 
bids fair to enlighten and regenerate a mighty mass ; 
to give a tone to public sentiment that will one day 
settle the great questions of catholic emancipation 
and parliamentary reform, by a more summary pro- 
cess than has yet been brought to the contest. 

The cultivation of the common branches of learn- 
ing, however, by no means implies a high degree of 
literary excellence. Nothing obtains for a nation so 
bright and permanent a reputation as her literature. 
Long after her vain battles have ceased, and her 
proud monuments have mingled with the dust, her 
intellectual character flourishes in all the beauty and 
vigour of youth ; it brightens as it goes down the 



12 

annals of time, refreshing the mind of the scholar, as 
the Oasis in the Egyptian desert solaces the weary 
traveller, where every thing around is dreary and 
barren. It was the literature of the ancients that 
swept away the clouds that had long been gathering 
around the human mind, and in the thirteenth and 
fourteenth centuries renewed the face of Europe ; it 
exerted an influence that still continues, that will be 
felt so long as the world shall last ; its empire is un- 
bounded, the empire of the mind. In this depart- 
ment, till very lately, we have accomplished but little ; 
we have been busy about other things ; it cannot be 
said of us, that " the literature of the age expresses 
the feelings of society ;" but we trust it will be true, 
that we shall have something characteristic, some- 
thing peculiar, something national, in the complexion 
of our writings, though we do speak the language, 
and are imbued with the thoughts, expressions, and 
style of the most distinguished literary people of 
modern times. Days of happier promise are advanc- 
ing ; we have scholars, and " ripe and good scholars 
too ;" a literary spirit is growing in some measure 
with the physical growth of the country, and daily 
producing in the midst of us a higher tone of feeling 
and sentiment. Science too dwells here, and has 
her votaries, men of deep study and research, who 
may fearlessly compare with their brethren on the 
opposite shores of the Atlantic. 

We live in an age of powerful and singular exer- 



13 

tion. The deep fountains are broken up ; the verj 
foundations of the world seem to be shaken ; an ex- 
citement is abroad amongst the nations, that will not 
slumber again till its end be accomplished ; enlighten- 
ed man is rising in his might, and bursting the chains 
that bound him to earth. 

Thrones, whose foundations were laid broad and 
deep in the darkness of the middle ages, and which 
have towered as if to obstruct the light that would 
pour in on every side, have been shaken to the very 
centre. The descendants of Hugh Capet have been 
driven as outcasts from the midst of their people, and 
compelled to invoke the aid of foreigners to regain 
an uncertain tenure of royal power. The divine 
right of kings has become a heretical doctrine, hardly 
whispered in the secret chambers of princes ; and 
legitimacy that has sprung up in its place, and will 
be suffered to walk the earth for a season, and be a 
scourge to mankind, will ere long become a by- word 
amongst the nations. 

We live in an age of bold speculation ; opinions 
that have been held in high reverence, opinions 
that have come down to us with the sanction of time 
gain no respect from their mere antiquity. The spirit 
of free inquiry, of fearless investigation, leaves no 
subject unexplored ; every thing unsound is exposed ; 
doctrines are subjected to the keenest scrutiny ; the 
philosophy of the schools has given way to the true 
philosophy of the mind : errors and superstitions that 



14 

mingled with existence, and invaded every walk of 
life, and bound the mind in strong fetters, have dis- 
appeared from the face of society. The phenomena 
of the natural world, that once were considered as 
exerting an influence over the fortunes and destinies 
of individuals and nations, are disarmed of their ter- 
rors by the light of rational science. And science, 
which of old dwelt in the recesses of the study, the 
intellectual nourishment of a few, has come out 
amongst men to the common business of life ; she has 
entered the workshop of the mechanic, and has given 
promise of indefinite increase to national wealth, and 
the solid comforts of life. Political economy, as a 
distinct department of knowledge, and useful to all, 
is taking a high stand in the old and new world. 
Political discussions, such as shed an abundance of 
light on the science of government in all its branches, 
are carried on with a fervour that in some latitudes is 
termed patriotism, in others, treason. Every thing is 
submitted to the test of truth, — rational, enlightened 
truth. 

Amongst ourselves we occasionally have a spirit of 
excitement, and sometimes the swelling language of 
gasconade. At the present moment, one of our sister 
states threatens to array herself against the Union, 
unless the sad remnant of the Indian tribes is driven 
from her borders, from the soil owned by the na- 
tives ; their birth-place, containing the bones of 
their fathers, and dear to them by a thousand associa- 
tions of which the children of the forest are susceptible. 



15 / 

Georgia cries out, " we will stand by onr arms, 
and for the support of this determination we mutu- 
ally pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and 
our sacred honour." Warm language this for a state 
containing a free population of scarcely one third part 
of that of Massachusetts, and a militia of but twenty- 
nine thousand men, armed with any thing and every 
thing but fire-arms. Warm language this to use 
against the whole nation. North of the Potomac, ex- 
pressions like these would savour of treason ; but 
those who live under a scorching sun, whose tem- 
perament is somewhat heated, are licensed, it seems, 
to talk and vapour as they please. Something too 
much of this ; there is a decency which should be 
regarded by all public bodies ; intemperate language 
implies nothing favourable of the character of a state, 
or of the individuals who compose it. If they must 
work themselves up to angry feelings, let them " in 
the very torrent, tempest, and whirlwind of their pas- 
sion, acquire and beget a temperance, that may give 
it smoothness." The confederacy is too strong to be 
seriously affected by one of its members ; the system, 
though disturbed, soon returns to its heathful opera- 
tion.* 



* Since the above was written, it has appeared that the senti- 
ments of the Executive and of the Committee did not meet with 
an exact response from the Legis atu e. 

It is to be hoped thai the existing difficulties will be terminated 
ki a way satisfactory to al. ; thougn ihat, as yet, is very doubtful. 



16 

Whilst we possess many high privileges, there are 
some things, whose existence we lament. The slave 
breathes heavily on our soil. A population is rapidly 
increasing that weakens our national power, and some- 
times excites the apprehensions of our Southern 
brethren. It is an evil brought upon the colonies 
against their consent, in opposition to their repeated 
remonstrances. It is an evil which all the exertions 
of all the active and benevolent in the land cannot 
remove. For its existence at this time the present 
generation is not answerable ; but we have a heavy 
charge to answer at the bar of humanity ; we have 
extended the privilege, if privilege it may be called, 
to the new states, and at a time when the opportu- 
nity was most favourable to stay forever its progress 
in the west. The principle is established, that states 
created by the power of Congress, and subject to 
whatsoever other conditions, shall not be restrained 
from holding their fellow men in perpetual servitude. 
Humanity sickens at the thought that the evil is to 
spread to an indefinite extent, as new sovereignties 
are admitted into the American confederacy. Patri- 
otism grieves as she thinks of the scenes that may 
one day occur, should this blind mass of bondmen 
attempt to shake off their chains. Christianity shud- 
ders that such numbers of human beings should be 
left in ignorance of the relation between man and 
his God. 



17 

There is another evil existing in the midst of us, of 
the most alarming nature, and spreading on every 
side like a pestilence. It blasts the prospects of 
youth and destroys the usefulness of manhood. It 
is said, that in habits of intemperance we exceed any 
civilized nation on earth. 

I have not come up hither to assume the office of the 
moralist ; but if this be so, I would say, that as men, 
we should value too highly the nature we possess, as 
freemen, we should feel too proud to sacrifice our 
reason at the shrine of this degrading vice. We have 
gained the mastery over others ; we should respect 
and govern ourselves. The circumstances in which 
we are placed are favourable to the exercise of 
every worthy sentiment, to the growth of all that 
exalts individual character, and gives it fine and 
manly proportions. But then we must be true to 
ourselves, and not sink man, rational man, to a mere 
animal existence, and that of the lowest kind. 

Let us turn away our thoughts from these consid- 
erations to the brighter recollections that gather 
around and hallow our revolution. 

There have been wars to stay the incursion of bar- 
barians, to support some imaginary point of national 
honour, to sustain the balance of power, to secure or 
defeat the succession of a particular family to a throne. 
There have been wars, too, for the protection of homes 
and firesides. But compared with all these, we 
claim a proud pre-eminence. In none were questions 
c 



18 

at issue that were ordained to exercise so powerful 
an influence over the destinies of future generations, 
I may say of mankind. Marathon and Platsea de- 
livered the states of Greece from the threatening 
power of tjie Persian ; but it resulted only in per- 
petual conflicts amongst themselves. They were free, 
but it was the freedom of licentiousness ; they were 
free, but it was the tempestuous rage of the ocean ; 
they were free, but it was only that they might be- 
come a spoil to each other. 

*' Grpoce ! thy hard hand oppressed 
And crushed the helpless ; thou didst make thy soil 
Drunk with the blood of those that loved thee best; 
And thou didst drive from thy unnatural breast 
Thy just and brave to die in distant climes." 

Our purpose was higher and more sacred. We 
claimed the right of managing our own affairs in 
our own way, without undue foreign interference. 
We claimed it from a nation that should have cherish- 
ed us with the kindness of a parent, and were rejected 
with scorn ; from a nation that was " bone of our 
bone and flesh of our flesh," and received our answer 
at the edge of the sword. We were forced to stand 
in hostile array against those who should have bid 
us, God speed ; to be armed against those who should 
have extended the hand of friendship, as to members 
of the same family and possessing a common ancestry. 
But the olive branch had withered. An effort was 
to be made in a cause worthy of every sacrifice. It 



19 

was a spectacle of moral grandeur to behold men 
venturing their lives in support of a noble principle, 
that the nations of the earth knew not of, — a princi- 
ple that kings would not recognise. It was a scene 
of awful interest ; it severed the strongest ties ; the 
bands of intimacy, the restraints of kindred were 
broken ; those who had lived in the closest friendship 
were forced to separate ; children and parents were 
found on opposite sides ; and the love of country 
wellnigh extinguished the claims of blood. These 
scenes have passed away, but they formed a nucleus 
around which have gathered the hopes and the 
patriotism of other lands. The example spread ; the 
nation that came to our aid in the day of our deepest 
distress, fell a prey to those who would be thought 
her friends. There, the pressure of long standing 
abuses increased the elastic power of resistance, till 
religion and law, all the landmarks of property, all 
that was refined and excellent, were swept away in 
one common destruction. 

But good was done, deduced even from the very 
outrages that humanity had suffered. Good was 
done ; for man began to question, in a tone rather 
louder than whispers, the tenure by which he was 
held in servitude. He began to imagine that he 
had some rights ; and though his views were limited, 
because of the darkness that ages of ignorance and 
oppression had scattered around him, he saw through 
it a few distant rays, that in some measure shed light 



20 

upon liis path ; a flame that many waters cannot 
quench, that shall increase till it shall become strong, 
and cast its blaze abroad, and penetrate the gloomy 
recesses of despotism, and nations shall rejoice and 
walk in the light. 

The good influence still spread, opposed by the 
governments, but secretly cherished by many of their 
subjects, and since, the destruction of imperial power 
in France has found its way to almost every part of 
Europe, even to the shores of Jtaly and the Penin- 
sula. But the death-like silence of ignorance and 
superstition reigned there, and proved to the world 
that sterner fates, and deeper misery and misrule 
must be their portion, before the great change, which 
is delayed for a season, can arrive. 

But the prospect brightens elsewhere. Pass over 
Austria and her dependencies, where an apathy and 
degradation exist that almost call for a new creation, 
and extend your views to the north. " The wheel 
is come full circle." Political improvement has in- 
vaded the circles of Germany ; in Wurtemburg, 
Bavaria, Baden, Weimar, and indeed in most of the 
confederate states, constitutions which afford full 
security to life, liberty, and property, are in successful 
operation. Prussia, too, has reformed most of the 
abuses, that, having their origin with the feudal sys- 
tem, have come down even to this century. She has 
established universities, and raised the lowly, and 
abolished many of the unjust immunities of the higher 



21 

orders. And Russia, despotic as that government is 
in principle, is building up, with astonishing rapidity, 
free schools for her whole population of forty-five 
millions, and is entering upon the cultivation of litera- 
ture and the arts with all the ardour of youth. In 
the end it will prove that every government whatso- 
ever must gradually yield to the force of public 
opinion, or public opinion will model anew the gov- 
ernment. It is a power not to be despised at the 
present day ; though silenced for a time, it will be 
felt ; though limited it will spread, till sceptres ac- 
knowledge its sway. Let us rejoice at the efforts 
that are making to improve the political condition of 
man, and exalt, by necessary consequence, his intel- 
lectual being. Let us rejoice at every attempt to 
reform abuses, to engraft the popular principle in 
other governments, to cherish the interests of educa- 
tion, whose influences extend through this life, and, 
connected with religion, purify for another. 

We stand before the world, and afford a practical 
illustration of the advantages derived from liberal in- 
stitutions. Let us indulge the hope, that whilst this 
Avhole continent, from Canada to Cape Horn, is eman- 
cipated from foreign dominion, the nations may reach 
our political security, whatever forms of government 
they may choose ; we can wish them no greater 
blessing. 

We also have a sacred duty to perform ; it is not 
to lay foundations, and build thereupon, — that has al- 



22 

ready been done by venerable men. Our duty is to 
sustain the noble fabric ; to enter it with clean hands 
and pure hearts ; to guard and hand down a spotless 
administration of justice ; to discountenance all tu- 
mult ; to improve our systems of education ; to protect 
orr excellent constitutions from those, who, under the 
name of reform, would touch them with unskilful 
hands ; to ward off intrigue and corruption, that may 
one day break in like a flood ; and, whilst we rever- 
ence the institutions of religion, to avoid the perse- 
cution that consists, not at the present day in fire and 
faggot, but in a spiiit intolerant, in remarks severe 
and cruel, in suspicions of the sincerity of those who 
do not see with our eyes. 

There is that which is called cant, a term used by 
the irrelig'ous against whatever is sincere and holy : 
there is that which is really cant, abounding in the 
world, and used as a cloak for hypocrisy, that covers 
the depravity of the heart, and tends to bring religion 
into contempt. Free inquiry and perfect toleration 
in practice will, more than any thing else, set these 
matters right ; as for perfect agreement it never will 
be, it never can be ; God, in his wisdom, has pro- 
hibited it by the very constitution of the human 
mind. 

Whilst we are watchful of our liberties, it is 
another part of our duty to cherish in recollection, — 
grateful rrcolL ction, — the memory of those, who, in 
our behalf, for themselves, for distant posterity, for 



23 

all that constitutes the idea of country, passed 
through the toils and dangers, the distress and suffer- 
ings of the war that changed us from dependent 
provinces to self-governing and free states. They 
were champions for a nobler cause than history 
records ; in a conflict where unsuccessful resist- 
ance would have brought on the punishment of re- 
bellion ; and those whom we reverence as the master 
spirits of the day, whose names gather fresh glory as 
time rolls along, would have suffered the ignominious 
death of traitors. The late celebration on the heights 
of Charlestovvn, shows that the cold and seliish in- 
terests of the day have not effaced the feeling of 
gratitude, that should glow in every bosom, nor its 
expression, that should fall from every tongue ; grati- 
tude, whose loudest breathings cannot swell too high 
the notes of praise that should spring from the heart. 
Nor should we forget him, who, in his youth, in 
the gloomiest period of the war, came to these shores, 
and laid bare his arm in our defence. Of noble ori- 
gin, he threw off the distinctions to which his rank 
gave him title. He left the pomp and gaiety of the 
court of the youthful and unfortunate Louis, the fas- 
cinations that dwelt around the lovely queen, " that 
delightful vision, glittering like the morning star, full 
of life, and splendour, and joy," and flew to offer his 
services as a volunteer in a cause that was still 
doubtful ; to a people without a name amongst the 
nations of the earth ; to pour out his wealth to supply 






24 

the necessities of an army poorly fed, worse clothed, 
and almost dispirited ; to shed his blood for suffering 
men, to whom he was bound by no tie of language, 
acquaintance, or country. He left us a little one ; 
he returns to visit us, and is receiving the freely of- 
fered, grateful homage of millions. He has come 
amongst us, like a good spirit descending from 
higher spheres ; he takes away the bitterness of 
our little altercations ; he unites all hearts ; he 
leads us back to the early scenes, where he did and 
suffered so much for us. And now that he is soon 
to leave these shores, and forever, we would dwell 
upon his virtue and his deeds, and show the 
world that freemen are not insensible to the sacred 
demands of gratitude. We all remember the enthu- 
siasm which swelled in our bosoms, when he was 
received amongst us ; " when the ear 4ieard him, 
then it blessed him ; when the eye saw him, it gave 
witness to him." We will cherish the deep feeling 
when it ceases to break out in open acclamation. We 
bid him farewell, with the earnest prayer that the 
singular vicissitudes of his former life, and the glo- 
rious and heartfelt scenes that have marked his 
progress the last year, may be crowned with a tran- 
quil and happy old age. 



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